Blog Advertising

Every so often, I get a request seeing if I’d like to put an advertisement on my website. It’s tempting sometimes, one little harmless ad to help offset the cost of hosting my site (it’s something like $100/year for everything). But I don’t, and you will never see any advertisements on my blog (save the Amazon affiliate linking and things of that nature that are unobtrusive). This site is first and foremost my blog. Its existence is to serve as a repository for the random bits of life I choose to store here. It is not a commercial venture.

Realize that advertising changes the nature of your blog. The first ads you take convert your blog from a non-profit to a commercial venture. It’s no longer a hobby; you’re being paid to blog. It’s work. And unless you’re only accepting only random ads, there are also new avenues for conflicts of interest.

This goes back to my point about this not being a commercial venture, but rather a place for the random bits of my life. The random bits of my life do not have any sort of advertisements as part of them.

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One Reply to “Blog Advertising”

I totally agree with this post, I actually was asked at one point to blog at this college site called college on the record (or something like that) only they required I only blog about certain things, and blogged 5 days a week including Saturday (or something silly). I quit after one day, it just seemed silly to me. I don’t like the google ads either. But I don’t see the harm in linking people off your blogroll which is what I do with my one sponsor I do have. She doesn’t require anything of me except that she is on my blogroll. It’s actually a pretty nice situation.

But I do understand all of your points and where you’re coming from completely. 🙂

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All content by Andrew Ferguson unless otherwise noted, with some restrictions on its use. For anyone who cares, this weblog does not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my employer and/or school. It is solely my opinion, sorry. If you've reached this point, I'll assume you have time to kill, trying reading a random blog post.